Congregational VisionWe are a Congregation creating a better world by nurturing the heart and expanding the mind.We provide a safe, caring community where all can freely explore diverse religious thought. We work for justice and equality with the power of compassion and compassionate power.

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Beacon, and would like to, please contact the office.

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Reflection...

Beloved Community -

This coming Sunday we continue our month-long exploration of the importance of history from many perspectives. I am delighted that I will be joined on the pulpit by our very own Mark Gustafson who will share reflections on the literature that helped to shape his worldview.

We invite everyone to bring a favorite book of fiction to place in the setting and enhance the visual experience of the service. But even more than that, after the service we invite you to pick your book back up and take it to the coffee hour so that we can enter into conversation with each other about our favorite literature and the ideas that have shaped us. Let's take this opportunity to enter into deeper dialogue with one another.

This dialogue is particularly important because we are welcoming 8 new members this Sunday. We want to help them integrate into our community and get to know them as new friends. Welcome one and all!

This Sunday will also be the last of our first round of "Dialogue and Community" at 9:00 a.m. Thanks to all who have participated! This Sunday we have wonderful plans once again.

Finally, let me express my deep appreciation for the community's passage of the UUA Declaration of Conscience. We should be very proud of joining the many other signatories to this important document. Now our task is to figure out how we make it come alive in our community.

In blessing,

Rabbi Chava

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Please Note

#MeToo Service has been rescheduled to Monday, November 6 - 6:00pm

This service will offer a time of reflection, ritual and healing (this will not be a time of story sharing or divulging). #MeToo began as an online acknowledgement of women's experiences of being harassed and assaulted, and has opened an important social conversation on the broader culture women and men must face. All are welcome.

Sunday Service

Sunday, November 5

9:00 AM Program: "Dialogue in Community"

Rabbi Chava Bahle & Sarah Montgomery-Richards

10:30 AM Service:

"Finding My Truth Through Literature"

Mark Gustaf

son

New Member Service -

Rabbi Chava Bahle

This is national novel writing month! Mark will discuss how the literature he taught for 35 years as an English teacher changed him and brought him to Unitarianism. He will discuss Heller, Kesey, Dickey, Salinger and others to make his point. Come prepared to think! Those who love to read are invited to bring a favorite book of fiction for the altar setting.

We will also Welcome New Members - please come to say a friendly hello.

Lifespan Experience for Children,

Youth and Families!

Sundays in November for preK-8th grade

We're off to a great start with our first session of "UU & YOU at Hogwarts"!

The children will be finalizing their "hunger horcrux", culminating with a visit to the Grace Episcopal Pantry after service on November 12. Handouts with more information have been sent home with children, but parents can contact me if they would like more details regarding the visit. We will begin our "literacy horcrux" this month as well.

Don't forget to join us out at Twin Lakes on November 19 for our Annual Thanksgiving Potluck! There will be NO Sunday service at UUCGT that week - instead we will have a brief but lovely service at Twin Lakes.

Suggested readings for families/parents this month include:

"How to Train Your Dragon" - by Cressida Caldwell "How to Train Your Dragon has been touted as the perfect book to reel in your reluctant readers. It's full of varied text and picture use throughout: maps, lists, songs, stat pages on dragons, rough drawings, even stray blots of ink strewn here and there. Mixed in with all the laugh-out-loud moments, excitement, danger, dragons, and very uncivilized Vikings, your students will find a real hero's adventure complete with a quest or two, impossible odds, a main character you can't help but like, and a story that will keep the kids thinking (despite themselves) all the way through. You'll find themes of quintessential initiation rites of childhood; dealing with intimidation by peers, parents, and even teachers; finding the leader within; depending on good friends; discovering strength you didn't know you had; learning to adapt; among many others. This book can be used as a supplement to a study on early Vikings, Norse mythology, and/or even a fun language unit (due to the many bits of dragonese that will have your students in stitches)". Books & Bunnies Book Review

As part of the "Hunger Horcrux" that our elementary and middle school children and youth have been working on, they are collecting canned/dried goods for the Grace Episcopal food pantry. The donation box is located outside of the kitchen - please donate generously!

Our families will deliver the food in November, and the children/youth will have the opportunity to meet the coordinators of Grace's pantry, as well as learn more about what a food pantry is, and the community that this particular pantry serves.

Food collection will continue until AFTER SERVICE on November 12th

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Wednesday Evening Program!

November 15

Maura Brennan & Steve Wade ~ Endowment Funds

"Everything You Always Wanted to Know"

Find more information in the November Beacon

Pagan Fair!!

Saturday, November 11th

10am-3pm!

Join us for our 3rd Annual Pagan Fair!

This wonderful event will feature a variety of vendors from statuary to drums, books, balms, candles, ritual items, and more! We will have healers/readers on hand... and don't forget about our workshops! Workshops will include an introduction to Paganism, Creating Sacred Space, and "The Sidhe & Me: Renewing our Kinship with the Faerie Otherworlds" (led by Jeremy Berg).

Come feed your spirit, take some time for self-care, and support local artists/vendors (shop 'till you drop)!

Community Lunch: Tuesdays - Volunteers meet at 10:30am. Every week for the past 25 years, UUCGT has provided a free lunch for anyone in the community who would like to come to Friends Church located at Fifth and Oak Streets in Traverse City. For more information, or to volunteer, call Mary Kiner at 935-3050, or email
marykiner@charter.net

Indivisible GT: Tuesday, November 7, 12:00 noon, sanctuary - Special Speaker, Michigan Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. Open to the community -
See flier here

Volunteer for Safe Harbor:UUCGT will be staffing Safe Harbor, at the new Safe Harbor building the week of December 9 through December 16. Many opportunities are still available as dinner preparers and servers, evening and overnight volunteers and breakfast, morning clean-up volunteers and to provide food and supplies. Please see Mike and Sandra McDonald at the Safe Harbor sign up table in the Gathering Space for the next 2 Sundays.

Donated Dinners:Checking interest level for 6 - 10 Dinner Hosts!

Are you are interested in hosting a dinner in 2018? Last year we donated 50% of the proceeds to the local Food Rescue Program. Contact John Hoffmann by November 15th! (
Sign-up sheets are typically offered at